Spend the money on the kit and modify it to your likeing..I've built lots of scratch floats and it just isn't worth it. The kits out are pretty good and can look very close to scale with some mods.But I would still cover them with .56 or .75 oz glass cloth and if they are around 48" put an inspection cover on the top and seal it . You never know when you might get a bit of water in the float, and its so hard to get it out of there... if you have any ? feel free to e-mail me or post a message for me....